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More than 20 years after being axed by then-premier Mike Harris, the concept of using cameras to catch traffic scofflaws is undergoing a revival. (Dreamstime)

I even had former Premier Mike Harris tell me to my face that I was responsible for getting him elected (geez; don't lay that one on me...).

But he essentially ran on eliminating Photo RAE-dar, which played particularly well in the 905 area code where he won the “swing' seats.” This was after I had destroyed the alleged rationale for this technology here in Toronto Star Wheels.

To summarize: the “proof” that photo radar worked came — how conveniently — from the company that makes the equipment.

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It was based on a study done in Paradise Valley, Ariz., which showed a 25 per cent reduction in traffic deaths after its introduction.

I visited Paradise Valley, Ariz., and spoke with Lieut. Ron Warner, who ran the program there.

They used one machine for an hour or two, two or three times a week, on two different stretches of road.

That seemed like an awfully large improvement for such a small intervention. Did anything else happen during that time?

“Some people tried to make something of the fact that Lincoln Drive was repaved,'' Warner said. “But it was exactly the same road.''

“What about that other road?” I asked.

“Well now, Mockingbird was very dangerous. It was expanded from two lanes to four, with left-turn lanes, median strips, overhead lights, stop lights.''

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“So, you completely rebuilt half the road network upon which photo radar was used, but your fatality reduction was completely due to photo radar?”

“That's right, Sir.''

I may be the only engineer ever to graduate without taking a course in statistics, but come on. . .

Here in Ontario, Bob Rae's NDP government introduced photo radar as an “experiment” — sort of like how Income Tax was introduced as a “temporary measure” in 1917 to finance World War 1. That worked out well.

Following a several-months test, the government announced that there had been a reduction in traffic fatalities in Ontario during the test period, compared with the same number of months before the test.

Even allowing that this was a statistical sample of one, surely it would be more meaningful to compare the months of the test this year to the same months from the previous year. Obviously, there is more traffic in summer; roads are in worse shape in winter.

The government chose not to do that analysis. Maybe they knew what the results would be, maybe they didn't.

So I did it, collecting statistics from the various Ontario Provincial Police detachments where photo radar was most frequently deployed, year-over-year for the same months.

And there was something like a 202 per cent increase in traffic fatalities during the photo radar test.

I'm not saying photo radar caused this increase. Again, the only joke in statistics is that two points make a straight line, three points make a trend.

In this case we only had two points — the year of the test and the previous year — so the data is probably irrelevant.

But it sure would be hard to make the case that photo radar helped, based on the data we did have.

There is basis in fact for the irrelevance of traffic speed to crash frequency because there is very little correlation.

Sure, if you hit something at 120 km/h, it's worse than if you hit it at 100 km/h.

But it's relative speed, not actual speed, that cause crashes. Photo radar did not generally slow traffic down, except where drivers could see the vans at the side of the road, and the blinding flashes of light as the cameras blazed away.

Hence a greater speed differential, hence greater danger.

We found out later that it wasn't even a cash grab, because such a low percentage of photos taken resulted in tickets being issued that it cost more to run than it brought in.

Like all too many Toronto families, mine was devastated by a traffic fatality. Before I was even born, 5-year old Rosemary, who would have been my sister, was killed in front of our family home in Agincourt.

I know what pain this can cause in a family, and I never even knew Rosemary.

So nobody wants safer roads more than I do.

And fewer people have been fighting for safer roads longer or harder than I have.

But photo radar is not about safer roads.

In school zones? Maybe, but it's a slippery slope. Warning signs flashing your speed are probably just as effective and much less intrusive.

It is not even about raising or saving money.

Mayor Tory, you are dead wrong about bicycles being “the way of the future” for transportation in Toronto.

Premier Wynne, you are dead wrong about electric cars ever being a significant part of our vehicle fleet in this province.

You are both dead wrong — perhaps literally — if you allow this scourge back into Ontario.

Geez, didn't both of those people just get elected last year?

How soon can we toss the rascals out, even if only to elect another bunch of rascals?

There's got to be an engineer somewhere who will start running this city and this province with a grain of intelligence. . .

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